Premier League

180 minutes of League One football is now under Wigan Athletic’s belt and so far we have zero points, and zero goals, to show for it. I don’t feel like it is time to panic though, because that’s football. You’re riding high in April, shot down in May August. But, Shaun Maloney will know he has to change that tune. We have to pick ourselves up and get back in the race.

This past week has been fairly eventful on and off the field, so let’s dive into what has been going on since last Wednesday, and try to make some sense of where we go from here.

The Prodigy’s Departure 🐯

Prodigy (noun) - A young person with exceptional qualities or abilities.

That is how I would describe Charlie Hughes. At just 20 years old, our Academy graduate, who had captained us at times last season, has completed his transfer back to the Championship to join Hull City for a significant seven-figure fee 💷

While I have been coming to terms with the disappointment of now not being able to watch Hughes play football week in, and week out, I cannot say I am not happy for him. He deserves this, and he will go on to achieve even more in the future.

Latics now have four available centre-backs at our disposal, with Jason Kerr, Will Aimson, James Carragher, and Toby Sibbick the first-team selections, and a seven-figure injection into the club for an Academy graduate who made his first team debut less than 24 months ago 👏🏼

Not only will that money be hugely beneficial in helping to balance our books this season, with investments into key areas as we continue to rebuild our infrastructure post-administration and ownership chaos, but the defensive options remaining are all solid options. Maloney will just have to adjust the game plan to allow us to play with their strengths in mind.

Could we have held on to Hughes for longer and received a bigger sum later down the line? Possibly. However, every young player needs to be given the chance to forge their career and this was Hughes’ opportunity to do so.

You can read more about my thoughts on Hughes’ departure via this article 👇🏼

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The Royals Mess 🤦

After our opening day against Charlton Athletic, I condensed my thoughts into the four words that I titled my last opinion piece: Chances, positives, negatives, heartbreaks.

Overall, I was happy with the way we held onto the ball and moved it around and I felt we had some decent chances to score. I saw this as a positive against a side that I feel should comfortably be competing in the top 6 this season. That said, we made some unforced errors to invite pressure and breakaways, with the biggest mistake causing us a heartbreak in the 81st minute.

So, forgive me for having so much optimism coming into the Reading fixture, that I boldly went for a winning 3-1 score prediction 😬

The performance we got instead was a mess. From the opening minute to the final whistle, Latics looked second-best in pretty much every phase of the game.

Let’s start off with our starting XI. I predicted that we would see this lineup in my match preview: Tickle, Sessegnon, Kerr, Aimson, Chambers, Adeeko, M Smith, Rankine, Aasgaard, Jones, Hugill. Ten out of eleven isn’t bad, as Shaun Maloney opted to start Silko Thomas over Jordan Jones on our left wing 🔄

While I feel the eleven selected are more than capable of going toe-to-toe with Reading, the way Maloney had us playing was a recipe for a 4-0 or 5-0 loss, never mind a 2-0 loss. If we are going to play two centre midfielders, for crying out loud do not have Matt Smith play deeper and allow Baba Adeeko a license to run forward when we are going up against Lewis Wing, Charlie Savage, and Ben Elliott in the middle of the park. The gaps the Royals could exploit made the afternoon easy for them.

I will give Rubén Sellés his flowers. The game plan he implemented was spot on. He not only made sure to get his side lofting aerial balls into our box for the 6-foot-3 Kelvin Ehibhatiomhan to work with, but he knew we were weakest in the middle and demanded his attacking players move the ball quickly through the gaps and press high up the field.

Now, I am not a football coach. I have never studied for my coaching badges, and I have zero experience in training sessions above Under 12s level when I hung up my boots. However, I have eyes and have watched enough football to know that you simply cannot let an attacking-minded midfielder have this much space to work with on the edge of our box during an attacking phase 🤦

This was the build-up for Reading’s first goal, and in the box, we had Luke Chambers, Will Aimson, Thelo Aasgaard, Jason Kerr, and Steven Sessegnon. The latter two were marking Ehibhatiomhan and Sam Smith, with the other three running towards the goal not marking anybody, and certainly not tracking Charlie Savage. Baba Adeeko did not seem to be too aware either, and Matt Smith is too high up the field to do anything about it other than scream for help.

10 seconds before this screenshot, Reading put the ball in from an almost identical area (Reading’s #27 in the bottom left of the screen the provider for this chance), and Sessegnon managed to clear. This time, the ball went over his head, and Ehibhatiomhan’s first touch was delightful, as he brought it down and laid it off to an unmarked Savage. Goal. 1-0. Thank you very much, the Royals said ⚽️

I also want to point out something I noticed in our attacking phase too. Joe Hugil’s 28th-minute effort on goal proved to me that desire is something lacking in our attacks. Hence, this is why I feel we are a blunt arrow so far this season.

When Silko Thomas plays the ball through for Joe Hugill, Thelo Aasgaard is roughly 11 meters behind. For the maths, Transfermarkt suggests the field is 102m, and there are nine lines within each half. 51m divided by 9 is 5.6m per line, and that’s how I worked that out. Anyway, when Hugill eventually gets on the ball, Aasgaard is nowhere to be seen, nor Rankine. Based on the 5.6m per line above, the right-hand screenshot shows there is nobody within about 30m. Where is the desire to get forward? 😳

These are just two examples in a game full of disappointing moments, and Reading were the deserving winners of this encounter. Latics, however, clearly have a lot of work to do on the training pitch if we are to bounce back well against Crawley this weekend.

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The Weekly De-Brief 🤔

This past week is not one I want to remember for too long, and hopefully, after a win on Saturday, this will be out of my mind.

The drop off from the Charlton performance to Reading was stark, and something has to change, quickly. I mentioned last time, that our biggest problem so far has been the disconnect between our midfield and attack. Without a more experienced number 9 to help us play higher up the field, Maloney has a choice to make in how we counter this problem.

I would hope in training that he has been exploring the options he has, and a viable solution has been quickly identified to at the very least allow us to look more comfortable in possession. As Paul Cook used to say, “It’s an unforgiving league”. We are having to play with very fine margins for error, and if we can at least get better at keeping possession and removing as many unforced errors, we can begin to turn our losses into draws, and then work on turning those into wins.

Unfortunately, I feel like we are back to a phase of ‘Baby Steps’, but I am hopeful that these are just teething issues that come with a young squad settling back into playing regular football again.

The Academy Round-Up 🔵

Wigan Athletic Under 18s traveled away to Brentford for their second game of the season, after a brilliant opening day 5-1 victory over QPR.

👕 Starting XI: Spaven, Hughes, Goulding, Bolland, Knott, Flight, C. Edwards, McKee, Simms, Cavanagh, Bettoni

🔄 Subs: Taylor, Z. Edwards, Clifford, Igiehon, Harris

Harrison Bettoni opened the scoring 3 minutes into the game, with his third goal of the Under 18s season. Brentford scored two goals within two minutes after the half-hour mark and led at the break. Shortly after an hour, Cole Simms netted the equaliser for his fifth goal of the season, following a hattrick against QPR in the opener and an Under 21s goal at Charlton last week. A lively final phase saw the hosts net three in the final 13 minutes, and pick up a 5-2 victory.

Latics dropped from the top of the table to fourth place behind Sheffield United, Hull City, and Peterborough United.

Wigan Athletic Under 21s hosted Cardiff City at the Brick Community Stadium on Tuesday afternoon, with both sides coming into the game off the back of opening-day defeats.

👕 Starting XI: Watson, Hughes, Trialist, Rogers, Knott, Trialist, Graham, McKee, Costello, Simms, Bettoni

🔄 Subs: Corran, Goulding, Bolland, Harris, C. Edwards

Our starting lineup consisted of nine players who featured for the U18s last time out, with Elijah Igiehon dropping out due to injury, and Llyton Chapman and Reece Greenhalgh both not involved, potentially also due to injuries.

The first half was difficult for Latics, as Cardiff City asserted their dominance in the game and could/should have been more than 2-0 up at the halfway mark. Sam Bolland replaced James Knott in the 47th minute before Oscar Harris and Christy Edwards replaced Harrison Bettoni and Cole Simms in the 73rd minute.

With seven minutes to go, Latics pulled one back via our midfield trialist but fell to a 3-1 loss after an injury-time goal.

Latics remain without any points on the board and sit in 8th place.

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The Next Week 🗓️

Saturday 24th August | Wigan Athletic vs Crawley Town | League One

Shaun Maloney will be hoping to see a major bounce back from our first away day of the season, to put on a top performance at home against last season’s League Two Play-Off winners.

On Thursday (22d August), I will have a full match preview for our game, discussing; the Red Devils return to the third tier, who to watch players, and what we can expect from this game. So, make sure to subscribe and check back tomorrow! 🫡

Saturday 24th August | Wigan Athletic U18s vs Watford U18s | U18 Professional Development League

Tuesday 27th August | QPR U21s vs Wigan Athletic U21s | U21 Professional Develoment League

Up the Tics 🔵⚪️

🙌 Thank you for reading!

✍🏼 Charlie Keegan / Central Wigan

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